I recently adopted a 4 year old pit bull mix (female, stray) from the local Shelter. She's very sweet and well-behaved, except that she is actively stalking my cat. Obviously, the shelter had no idea how she would act with a cat. We've get them separated, and crate the dog ("Star") periodically. At first, the cat ("Artie", who has been around dogs before) would come downstairs, but they had an encounter in which Star stalked and chased Artie. Artie hasn't come downstairs since, and Star is fixated on the stairs. It's been less than a week, but the stalking behavior has me worried that they won't be able to safely live together unless we permanently divide the house. Any suggestions or advice most welcome!

Thanks very much for your suggestions (and for the article). I'm actually an animal behaviorist, and realize that this will take time--my husband is the impatient one! We have a gate at the foot of the stairs, though Star is very strong and I suspect, if highly motivated, could push it down. The only interactions so far (except the inadvertent chase) have been when Star was crated, and she ignored Artie. Artie won't even come down now when she is crated, so he needs to relax more before we try this again. I'm working with Star on basic obedience training, and she is pretty good at sit and down. I'm working on stay, and also want to introduce "no" (or "drop it") before trying an intro again. Easy enough to have her on a leash for an intro, but I don't want to force Artie into it; it will need to be when he's ready! I've attached photos, too.

It's still too soon to tell how both Star & Artie will respond to each other. Our teenage Mollie puppy (6 months old) stalks & points at our Kitty but she just eventually learned how to tune Mollie out.

Now Mollie could chase her up and down the stairs but Kitty ends up finding a quite spot then Mollie loses interest in the chase.

Good luck and sweet pictures SueM!

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They are adorable Artie is very handsome. I have no advice on chasing as I haven't been able to teach my dog not to chase cats. She sees ours chasing each other and just wants to join in. The one thing that has helped is the "no Bite" command we taught her when she was teething. She still chases the cats, but when she catches up to them, we can say no bite and she will lick them instead.